Editing United States Navy SEALs (section)

=== Underwater Demolition Teams (UDTs) ===
{{Main|Underwater Demolition Teams}}The first units designated as Underwater Demolition Teams were formed in the [[Pacific Theater of World War II|Pacific Theater]]. [[Richmond K. Turner|Rear Admiral Kelly Turner]], the Navy's top amphibious expert, ordered the formation of Underwater Demolition Teams in response to the failed invasion at [[Battle of Tarawa|Tarawa]] and the Marines' inability to clear the surrounding coral reefs with [[Landing Vehicle Tracked]] (LVTS). Turner recognized that [[amphibious operations]] required [[Strategic intelligence|intelligence]] of underwater obstacles. The personnel for these teams were mostly local [[Seabee (US Navy)|Seabees]] or others that had started out in the NCDUs. UDT training was at the [[Waipio, Hawaii|Waipio]] Amphibious Operating Base, under V Amphibious Corps operational and administrative control. Most of the instructors and trainees were graduates of the Fort Pierce NCDU or Scouts and Raiders schools, Seabees, Marines, and Army soldiers.

[[File:Charp W. H. Acheson CEC.jpg|thumb|Carp. W. H. Acheson Silver Star ceremony for UDT 1 action at [[Battle of Eniwetok|Engibi]] where he stripped down to swim trunks and did reconnaissance in broad daylight on a hostile beach becoming a role model of UDTs being swimmers.]]

When Teams 1 and 2 were initially formed, they were "provisional" with 180 men in total.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.viewoftherockies.com/UDT1and2.html |title=WWII UDT One & WWII UDT Two |website=View of the Rockies |access-date=18 October 2017}}</ref> The first underwater demolition team commanders were CDR E.D. Brewster (CEC) UDT 1 and CDR John T. Koehler UDT 2.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Milligan|first=Benjamin H.|title=By Water Beneath The Walls|publisher=Bantam Books|year=2021|isbn=978-0553392197|location=United States|pages=145–186|language=english}}</ref> The teams wore fatigues with life-vests and were not expected to leave their boats—similar to the NCDUs. However, at Kwajalein [[Fort Pierce]] protocol was changed. Admiral Turner ordered daylight reconnaissance and CEC. ENS Lewis F. Luehrs and Seabee Chief William Acheson wore swim trunks under their fatigues anticipating they would not be able to get what the Admiral wanted by staying in the boat. They stripped down and spent 45 minutes in the water in broad daylight. When they got out they were taken directly to Admiral Turner's [[flagship]] to report, still in their trunks. Admiral Turner concluded that daylight reconnaissance by individual swimmers was the way to get accurate information on coral and underwater obstacles for upcoming landings. This is what he reported to Admiral Nimitz.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hoyt |first=Edwin P. |title=SEALs at War |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fDvNvnMrc1QC&pg=PT25 |date=2011 |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-0307570062 |page=25}}</ref> The success of those UDT 1 Seabees not following Fort Pierce protocol rewrote the UDT mission model and training regimen.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kelly |first=Orr |title=Brave Men, Dark Waters: The Untold Story of the Navy SEALs |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3c-1AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT30 |date= 2014 |publisher=Open Road Media |isbn=978-1497645639 |page=30}}</ref> Those Seabees also created the image of UDTs as the "naked warriors". At [[Engebi]] CDR Brewster was wounded and all of the men with ENS Luehrs wore swim trunks under their greens.<ref name="UDT Cold"/>

After the operations in the [[Marshall Islands]], Admiral Turner restructured the two provisional UDT units and created 7 permanent units with an allotted size of 96 men per team. In the name of operational efficiency, the UDTs were also made an-all Navy outfit, and any Army and Marine corp engineers were returned to their units. Moving forward, the UDTs would employ the reconnaissance method made successful in Kwajalein – daytime use of swimsuits and goggles instead of the Scouts and Raiders method of nighttime rubber boats. In order to implement these changes and grow the UDTs, Koehler was made the commanding officer of the Naval Combat Demolition Training and Experimental Base on Maui. Admiral Turner also brought on LCDR Draper Kauffman as a combat officer.<ref name=":0"/>

[[File:Lt Luehrs CO UDT 3.jpg|thumb|left|Lt. Luehrs was one of the 30 officers from the 7th NCR<ref name="CB301">Submarine blasting, 301 NCB cruisebook, Seabee Museum Archives website, Jan 2020, p.60 [https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/museums/seabee/explore/wwii-cruisebooks/cruisebooks-ncb.html]</ref> that staged for UDTs 1 & 2. He and Chief Acheson were the first UDT swimmers. His [[United States Navy staff corps|Corps]] insignia would have had a Seabee on it.]]

Seabees made up the vast majority of the men in teams 1–9, 13, and 15.<ref name="viewoftherockies">{{cite web |url=http://www.viewoftherockies.com/UDTWWII.html |title=The Teams in World War II |website=View of the Rockies |access-date=18 October 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc.natlib.afc2001001.66145/transcript?ID=sr0001|title= reply# 30, Seabees as UDTs, Interview with Wright S. Travis, member of OSS Maritime Unit attached to UDT 10|publisher= The Library of Congress|date=20 November 2007}}</ref> Seabees were roughly 20% of UDT 11.<ref name="viewoftherockies"/> The officers were mostly CEC.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://seabeemagazine.navylive.dodlive.mil/2016/09/12/this-week-in-seabee-history-week-of-sept-11/ |first=Frank A. |last=Blazich |title=This Week in Seabee History (Week of September 11) |date=12 September 2016 |website=Seabees Online |publisher=Navy Facilities Engineering Command |access-date=10 December 2017 |archive-date=13 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171013172300/http://seabeemagazine.navylive.dodlive.mil/2016/09/12/this-week-in-seabee-history-week-of-sept-11/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>
At war's end 34 teams had been formed with teams 1–21 having actually been deployed. The Seabees provided over half of the men in the teams that saw service.

The UDT uniform had transitioned from the combat fatigues of the NCDUs to trunks, [[swimfins]], [[diving mask]]s and [[Ka-bar]]s. The men trained by the OSS had brought their swimfins with them when they joined the UDTs.<ref name= "OSS">{{cite web|url=http://www.missingaircrew.com/pdf/450523_Gibbony_MU_Combat_Report_with_UDT10.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.missingaircrew.com/pdf/450523_Gibbony_MU_Combat_Report_with_UDT10.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title= Office of Strategic Services Report, Maritime Unit, Group A, OSS Combat Operations with UDT 10 from 10 August 1944 to 16 April 1945|last1= Gibbony | first1= Lt. L.J.| publisher= Missing Aircrew Project, Patrick Ranfranz| date= 23 May 1945|access-date= 27 March 2019}}</ref> They were adopted by the other teams as quickly as Supply could get them.<ref name="OSS"/>

These "Naked Warriors", as they came to be called post-war, saw action in every major Pacific [[amphibious landing]] including: [[Battle of Eniwetok|Eniwetok]], [[Battle of Saipan|Saipan]], [[Battle of Kwajalein|Kwajalein]], [[Battle of Tinian|Tinian]], [[Battle of Guam (1944)|Guam]], [[Battle of Angaur|Angaur]], [[Ulithi]], [[Battle of Peleliu|Peleliu]], [[Battle of Leyte|Leyte]], [[Battle of Lingayen Gulf|Lingayen Gulf]], [[Battle of Zambales|Zambales]], [[Battle of Iwo Jima|Iwo Jima]], [[Battle of Okinawa|Okinawa]], [[Battle of Labuan|Labuan]], and [[Battle of Brunei Bay|Brunei Bay]]. By fall of 1944, the UDT's were considered an indispensable US military special operations unit, and Navy planners in the Central Pacific relied heavily on the UDT's reconnaissance reports and demolition activities to clear the way for landings.<ref name=":0"/>

The last UDT operation of the war was on 4 July 1945 at [[Balikpapan]], [[Borneo]]. The rapid demobilization at the conclusion of the war reduced the number of active duty UDTs to two on each coast with a complement of seven officers and 45 enlisted men each.<ref name="Navy Seals History sealswcc.com"/> However, the UDTs were the only special troops that avoided complete disbandment after the war, unlike the OSS Maritime Unit, the VAC Recon Battalion, and several Marine recon missions.<ref name=":0"/>

Because they were so integral to the success of missions in the Pacific during the war, the U.S. Navy did not publicize the existence of the UDTs until post-war.<ref>{{cite web|date=October 1945|title='ALL HANDS', The Bureau of Naval Personal Information Bulletin Number 343|url=https://www.navy.mil/ah_online/archpdf/ah194510.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.navy.mil/ah_online/archpdf/ah194510.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=dead|access-date=27 March 2019|publisher=NAVPERS|pages=12–15}}</ref> During WWII the Navy did not have a [[List of United States Navy ratings|rating]] for the UDTs nor did they have an insignia. Those men with the CB rating on their uniforms considered themselves Seabees that were doing underwater demolition (Fig. 11). They did not call themselves "UDTs" or "[[Frogmen]]" but rather "Demolitioneers" which had carried over from the NCDUs<ref>{{cite web| url = https://navysealmuseum.pastperfectonline.com/photo/6A9D1E48-3FAE-48BC-94F3-951428987292| title = NCDU 216 Photo, National Navy UDT–SEAL Museum, North Hutchinson Island, Fort Pierce, FL }}</ref> and Lt Cdr Kauffman's recruiting efforts from the Seabee dynamiting and demolition school. The next largest group of UDT volunteers came from the joint Army-Navy [[Scouts and Raiders]] school that was also in Fort Pierce and the [[Explosive ordnance disposal (United States Navy)|Navy's bomb disposal school]] in the Seabee-dominated teams.

For the Marianas operations of Kwajalein, [[Roi-Namur]], Siapan, Tinian, [[Eniwetok]], and Guam, Admiral Turner recommended sixty Silver Stars and over three hundred [[Bronze Star]]s with Vs for the Seabees and other service members of UDTs 1–7<ref name="Frogman">{{cite book|last=Bush|first= Elizabeth |title=America's First Frogman |date= 2012| publisher= Naval Institute Press| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_1THUFop2BkC&q=UDTs+at+Guam&pg=PT122 |access-date= 27 March 2019|isbn= 978-1612512983 }}</ref> That was unprecedented in U.S. Naval/Marine Corps history.<ref name="Frogman"/> For UDTs 5 and 7 every officer received a silver star and all the enlisted received bronze stars with Vs for Operation Forager (Tinian).<ref name="Fane">{{cite book|last1= Fane USNR (Ret.)| first1= Cdr. Francious Douglas |title= Naked Warriors | date= 1976 | publisher= New York: St. Martin's Press | pages=122–131 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=O8OEbXuKZtcC |access-date= 27 March 2019| isbn= 978-0312959852 }}</ref> For UDTs 3 and 4 every officer received a silver star and all the enlisted received bronze stars with Vs for Operation Forager (Guam).<ref name="Fane"/> Admiral [[Richard Lansing Conolly]] felt the commanders of teams 3 and 4 (LT Crist and LT W.G. Carberry) should have received Navy Crosses.[[File:80-G-244701 Lt Crist, Lt Cmdr. Kauffman, and Lt Carberry awards.jpg|thumb|LT Crist (CEC), LCDR Kauffman, and LT Carberry right–left at the UDT Silver and Bronze Stars award ceremony.]] [[File:Seabee Demolition UDT 3.jpg|thumb|Seabees in both UDT 3 and 4 made signs to greet the Marines assaulting Guam.<ref name="Fane"/> However, Team 4 was able to leave theirs on the beach for the Marines to see that the Seabees had been there first. UDT 4 posted this sign again on the Hotel Marquee for its 25-year reunion.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://navysealmuseum.pastperfectonline.com/photo/FB347F6A-655B-411C-886E-544085902343| title = Sign 1967, Holiday Inn, Navy Seal Museum, Fort Pierce, 3300 N. Hwy. A1A, North Hutchinson Island, Fl 34949.}}</ref>]]As the first to often make amphibious landings, the UDTs began making signs to welcome the Marines, indicating they had been there first, to foster the continued friendly rivalry. In keeping with UDT tradition, UDT 21 created a sign to greet the Marines landing in Japan. For [[Operation Beleaguer]] UDT 9 was deployed with the [[III Amphibious Corps]] to Northern China. In 1965 the UDT 12 put up another beach sign to greet the Marines at [[Da Nang]].

'''[[Operation Crossroads]]''' UDT 3 was designated TU 1.1.3 for the operation. On 27 April 1946, seven officers and 51 enlisted embarked at CBC Port Hueneme, for transit to Bikini.<ref>Operations Crossroads, DNA 6032F, prepared by the Defense Nuclear Agency, p. 189 [http://www.dtra.mil/Portals/61/Documents/NTPR/2-Hist_Rpt_Atm/1946_DNA_6032F.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210325000914/https://www.dtra.mil/Portals/61/Documents/NTPR/2-Hist_Rpt_Atm/1946_DNA_6032F.pdf|date=25 March 2021}}</ref> Their assignment was to retrieve water [[sample (material)|sample]]s from [[ground zero]] of the Baker blast.